Atlanta's Search for a Slogan & Graffiti

Atlanta Graffiti Stroll I, originally uploaded by brookenovak.

I've only been living in Atlanta for a month. But I've been reading about the city's search for a slogan since I read the Bloglanta: Identity, It's What's in a Slogan! post in August. Slogans bring to mind a specific image of a city. Sin City... "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas." The Big Easy... "The City that Care Forgot."

So, Atlanta... um... hmm... While I can't think of a slogan, I can start with how I see the city and what my slogan would try to capture.

Fertility: this city is overrun with growth, plants, and people. Houses and buildings perched on hillsides, roads carved every which way and everything surrounded by lush, green growth. Life abounds in Atlanta in a myriad of forms.

Decay: with abundant life comes decay. Trees become old or diseased. Buildings, abandoned or lost to fire. The ebb and flow of the city can be seen in where people have lived and where they have left.

Reclaimation and Reuse: this is where the pictures of graffiti started this line of thought. Just like industrial architects could have never imagined their factories turned into trendy lofts, graffiti turns anything into a canvas for its purpose. Now I'm not advocating property damage (which is what many property owners see it as), but some of the graffiti in town is just great art. And it's that creative spirit to take something like an old industrial complex and turn it into something like the StudioPlex. Atlanta is not just a Southern city, historic in nature and successful in a wide variety of business and social ventures. What little I've seen of the city's strengths seem to be ones that give Atlanta the flexibility and capacity to turn liabilities into positives.

So, I'd be curious what people who have lived in Atlanta for more than 31 days have to say about their city and what personifies it. And forgetting the city slogan, I think that Mr. Fangs should be Atlanta's adopted mascot.

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Brooke Novaks' Graffiti photoset got me started on this whole line of thought.

Mr. Fangs, originally uploaded by brookenovak.